If you feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day, it might be because you aren’t making the most of every moment you have. Here are some habits of people who get a lot done in the seconds that most of us waste.

Jumping between activities that demand different mind-sets will slow you down. “Bundle tasks that require similar skill sets or states of mind,” says Alex Cavoulacos, cofounder and COO of career site the Muse. For example, she answers emails while catching up with her team through online chat, occasionally stopping to make a phone call. “Those are all short, communication-based tasks,” she says.

“If you don’t, you’re losing 30 minutes to an hour a day,” says Rob Shapiro, director of product strategy at media company Muck Rack, who uses X for select and E to archive. “My E key falls off my keyboard because I archive so often,” he says.

Three small tasks are easier to tackle than one huge one. “I make sure each takes 30 minutes or less to complete,” says Catherine Ulrich, chief product officer at stock-photo site Shutterstock. “Bite-size steps ensure that I make progress.”

Watch us put multi-tasking to the test:

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A version of this article appeared in the November 2015 issue of Fast Company magazine.